Composition

Portrait of a Baby, photograph of canvas at right angles to portrait

Underneath the portrait, at right angles to the portrait, there are traces of a beach scene with, at right, several windblown figures walking by the sea.

Technique

Portrait of a Baby, Private Collection

The canvas is roughly equivalent to the French ‘toile de 12’ (61 x 46 cm) in size and was probably acquired in Paris. The face is quite highly finished but the lower half of the canvas is only roughly brushed over.

Conservation History

Portrait of a Baby, photograph of canvas at right angles to portrait

Portrait of a Baby, reproduction in catalogue, Hotel Drouot, 1902

Photographs suggest it has been cleaned and perhaps repaired and restored. Traces of the underlying beach scene are still visible at right angles to the portrait. According to Andrew McLaren Young (1913-1975), who saw the canvas in the 1960s, it had been relined about 1958. 1

Frame

Unknown. According to Professor Young, it was not in a Whistler-style frame.